Bottom mods

[Lil' Blue Rude]

I see alot of you Sabine river guys run aluminium boats, I run a aluminium flat bottom with a jet. I've been wondering if you guys know of any mods to do to the bottoms to make your boats a little more efficient. I'd love to here some tips or tricks. shoot me a PM about if you want, thanks guys

[orangebeast]

There is some stuff called superslick, if your interested in knowin more just email me

[seapro]

i always wanted to put a jet on a hydro

[50hptiller]

I bondo'd mine made it true and flat then primer then 600grit long ways

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

about the "slickness" of a boat bottom. I think everyone agree's that the bottom should be straight and true, or at least the way it should have been according to the designer, but sometimes it does not end up that way either because of construction methods, or it gets "out of true" because of bad trailer support, or other reasons such as damage repair, etc.

Something else there is disagreement about is just how "slick" a bottom should be. There are studies/experiments that have been done that show water can "drag" on a slick bottom and actually slow a boat somewhat. This has been overcome with various degrees of success by "dimpling" the running surface somewhat like the surface of a golf ball. I think I heard or read someplace that was the reason for the dimples on a surface of a golf ball, that it would fly truer and faster than one without dimples. I am sure there is research about this, probably by referring to "GOOGLE".

I never tried the dimple thing, but I do know my hydro was faster if I did not wax the bottom versus if I did. Almost too small to measure but the difference was there. Perhaps it was the wax as I never took the time to try a run without and then apply it and go right back out.

Sometimes it is REALLY hard to pinpoint small differences in speed as being the result of a specific thing, as conditions can change in other ways between runs, making a scientific comparison difficult.

[Allen J. Lang]

There were tests showing dolphin skin does flex while they swim and increase speed. I believe someone tried to duplicate it with boat bottom paint quite a few years ago. I remember when we used to rough up the bottoms with the stink blocks.

[Jackson]

I bondo'd mine made it true and flat then primer then 600grit long ways

I 2nd This

[phillnjack]

The smoother the bottom ,the more i like it.


phill

[bad news racing]

I see alot of you Sabine river guys run aluminium boats, I run a aluminium flat bottom with a jet. I've been wondering if you guys know of any mods to do to the bottoms to make your boats a little more efficient. I'd love to here some tips or tricks. shoot me a PM about if you want, thanks guys

That slick stuff the Beast is talking about does have a dimple effect , with the jet u do not have any prop lift so wider and sharp angle up to transom, do any boats up there use tunnels?

[Lil' Blue Rude]

I don't really know of anyone running a tunnel hull around here. most guys run a Blazer SS or a Exterminater Gt Flat bottom jon with raised rake. I blue printed the bottom and use slip plate on it. didn't see any noticable changes speed wise but I can tell the boat doesn't come back down as hard when it bounces. Think I'm gonna remove the slip plate this winter and put somethin diffrent on it. Either super slick or some epoxy primer.